Summer student - Highways in Transportation Review

I learned a lot of invaluable lessons about the way an engineering consultancy works. My team was friendly.

I feel that as my internship progressed my colleagues trust in me continually increased. At some points they relied on me to allow the team reach deadlines.

I was given good support by my line manager. I was given clear instructions when given tasks to complete. My manager organised 2 site visits for me.

It varied. At some points I was struggling to find work, and at other times I would stay very late to complete the work I was given. I didn't mind this, as I understand that as an intern I was given whatever excess work was available at any given time.

In general not a massive amount of responsibility. During one week I was given the responsibility to "manage" a work experience student. I was relied upon to facilitate the winning of 1 minor project for my team. But most of the tasks I was given were fairly simple.

I think that I learned a lot about management, and the financial side of an engineering company. I developed up a lot of IT skills. In terms of solid technical knowledge that I will use in the future in my degree, I think that learning has been fairly limited.

I was quite surprised how relaxed the atmosphere was. Everyone was friendly.

Everything was well organised for me in terms of administrative procedures etc. There was not really an organised structure to the work I was given, I basically just helped out with whatever needed doing. This was not necessarily a bad thing though, as it meant that I got a good variety of experiences.

They sent me on 2 site visits (taking up 3 days in total) where I learned a lot but did little productive work, so this was an investment. My manager also got me started with working towards being professionally qualified - together he and I started signing off the basic 'development objectives' which are needed to become a chartered member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

I do not think that I would want to work within the division of Atkins in which I undertook my placement due to the type of work that they do. It was a good team and a nice office, but it is not the type of engineering that I would want to do as a graduate. However, I would be interested in working for another department of Atkins which suited me better, as it is a high quality company who gets a lot of high level, interesting work.

Yes, all the placement students went out together 3 or 4 times throughout the summer,

Glasgow - rent for an entry level flat - £325/month Price of a pint - £3ish on average

Good - lots of restraunts/pubs/clubs/cinema, whatever you want really

There were sports leagues which you could take part in